Protective clothing

ABSTRACT

Provided is a protective garment that ensures facilitated doffing. A protective garment  10  according to one embodiment includes an upper part  12  of the garment, a lower part  14  of the garment, and an open/close portion  24.  The upper part  12  of the garment includes a body portion  16,  a pair of sleeve portions  18   a,    18   b , and a hood portion  20.  The lower part  14  of the garment is connected to the upper part of garment. The open/close portion  24  is formed in a front body portion  16   a  of the body portion for donning and doffing the protective garment. A stretchable portion  32  is formed in a boundary between a back body portion of the body portion and the hood portion.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a protective garment.

BACKGROUND ART

A protective garment has various kinds of forms and functions depending on its purpose and usage. Especially, to prevent dirt, chemicals, viruses, bacteria, and the like from adhering to a body, there has been a protective garment of a coverall type (overall type) in which an upper part of the garment that includes a body portion, a hood portion, and sleeve portions is integrally formed with a lower part of the garment.

A wearer of protective garment needs not only to follow a proper method of donning to reduce a risk of contamination, but also to prevent contamination (secondary contamination) when doffing the protective garment. Since a mistake in a procedure and a method for doffing the protective garment possibly causes the secondary contamination, ease in doffing the garment is very important for the prevention of the secondary contamination. Further, for example, when it takes a time for a person engaged in medical treatment dealing with an emergency patient to doff the garment in doffing protective garment after dealing with an emergency patient suspected of having an infectious disease in a state of wearing the protective garment, a response to the next patient transported emergently delays. Meanwhile, attempting to doff the garment in a short time raises the possibility of adhesion of viruses, bacteria, and the like adhered to the surface of the protective garment to the body. Therefore, the protective garment that is facilitated to doff has been desired. As such a protective garment, there has been known a protective garment that includes an open/close portion from an upper body portion to a lower part of the garment (see Patent Literature 1).

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

Patent Literature 1: JP 2005-23460 A

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

The protective garment of Patent Literature 1 is a coverall type protective garment that includes an open/close portion for doffing it. According to the findings by the present inventors, when doffing the protective garment disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the open/close portion is opened and its hood is doffed at first. Subsequently, after shoulders are removed from an opening portion of the protective garment formed by opening the open/close portion, arms are removed, thereby doffing its upper part of the garment. Then, its lower part of the garment is doffed. While the protective garment of Patent Literature 1 includes the open/close portion for donning and doffing it in a front body, the movement of the upper part of the garment is restricted by the lower part of the garment because of the coverall type. Therefore, there has been a problem in that the removal of the shoulders is difficult in doffing the garment, and consequently, doffing the garment is difficult.

Accordingly, the present invention has an object to provide protective garment that ensures facilitated doffing.

Solution to Problem

A protective garment according to one aspect of the present invention comprises: an upper part of the garment that includes a body portion, a pair of sleeve portions, and a hood portion; a lower part of the garment connected to the upper part of the garment; and an open/close portion formed in a front body portion of the body portion for donning and doffing of the protective garment. A stretchable portion is formed in a boundary between a back body portion of the body portion and the hood portion.

The protective garment is a coverall type protective garment. When this protective garment is doffed, shoulders, arms, and legs are removed from an opening portion (opened portion) of the protective garment formed by opening the open/close portion. In the protective garment, since the open/close portion is formed in the front body portion of the body portion, a wearer of the protective garment easily operates the open/close portion. Since the stretchable portion is formed in the boundary between the back body portion and the hood portion, the opening portion can be expanded by stretching the stretchable portion in the removal of the shoulders from the opening portion. Consequently, the shoulders are easily removed from the opening portion. Accordingly, the protective garment facilitates doffing.

Fabrics of the upper part of the garment and the lower part of the garment may have a viral barrier property of class 4 or higher. The protective garment using such a fabric is effective for the infection control.

An elongation of the stretchable portion may be greater than or equal to 120%, and the elongation is calculated by Formula (1) assuming that a length of the stretchable portion before applying a tension in a direction of stretching the stretchable portion is referred to as a first length, and a maximum length of the stretchable portion in a case where a predetermined tension is applied to the stretchable portion to stretch the stretchable portion is referred to as a second length, and the elongation of the stretchable portion (%)=(the second length/the first length)×100 . . . (1)

When the elongation of the stretchable portion is greater than or equal to 120%, the shoulders of the wearer are easily removed by stretching the stretchable portion (boundary) in doffing the garment.

The stretchable portion may be configured to be stretched to have a distance between shoulder portions or more assuming that a distance between a shoulder portion in a left side and a shoulder portion in a right side of the upper part of the garment is defined as the distance between the shoulder portions in a state where the front body portion and the back body portion are stacked and a state where the stretchable portion is not stretched. In this case, since the stretchable portion can be stretched and expanded to the shoulder width or more of the wearer by stretching the stretchable portion (boundary) in doffing the garment, doffing the garment is further easier.

The stretchable portion may be configured to be stretched to have a shoulder width or more of a wearer in a state where the wearer having the shoulder width of 406 mm wears the protective garment. Also in this case, since the wearer can stretch the stretchable portion (boundary) in doffing the garment and the stretchable portion is stretched and expanded to the shoulder width or more of the wearer, doffing the garment is further easier. Note that, here, the shoulder width of the wearer means a direct distance between right and left acromial points.

At least a part of the hood portion and at least a part of the back body portion, disposed across the boundary, and the boundary may be formed of one continuous fabric. In this case, since there is no joint line in the boundary, the protectiveness can be ensured more.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present invention can provide the protective garment that is further facilitated in doffing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram in a case where a protective garment according to one embodiment is viewed from a front side.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram in a case where a cover is omitted from the protective garment illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram in a case where the protective garment illustrated in FIG. 1 is viewed from a back side.

FIG. 4 is a drawing for describing a configuration of a stretchable portion.

FIG. 5 is a drawing in a state where an open/close portion is opened in doffing the protective garment.

FIG. 6 is a drawing for describing a process of removing shoulders after opening the open/close portion.

FIG. 7 is a drawing when the state illustrated in FIG. 6 is viewed from the back side.

FIG. 8 is a drawing illustrating a state where the shoulders are removed from the protective garment.

FIG. 9 is a table illustrating results of examples and comparative examples.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following describes embodiments of the present invention by referring to the drawings. The same reference numerals are attached to the same components and the overlapping descriptions are omitted. Dimensional proportions of the drawings do not necessarily match those in descriptions. In this description, the terms indicating directions, such as “upper,” “lower,” “left,” and “right,” mean directions viewed from a wearer when a person (wearer) wears protective garment.

A protective garment 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is a coverall type (overall type) protective garment in which an upper part 12 of the garment is integrally connected to a lower part 14 of the garment. The protective garment 10 is an infection control garment block harmful substances (or contaminant) for preventing infectious diseases caused by pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria. The exemplary harmful substance includes a liquid (for example, blood and bodily fluid) containing a pathogen and floating particles in the air containing a pathogen. The exemplary harmful substance may include dirt and chemicals.

Fabric of Protective Garment

The fabric of the protective garment 10 may be any fabric insofar as the harmful substances can be blocked and certain workability is ensured. The fabric is, for example, a fabric that has a viral barrier property of class 4 or higher. Such a fabric can deal with various kinds of harmful substances. The class of the viral barrier property is a class classified by a successful test pressure with a method D defined by JIS T8061 (2010) based on bacteriophage permeability resistances of JIS T8122 (2007). This class is the same as a class classified by a successful test pressure with a method D defined by ISO 16604 (2004) based on bacteriophage permeability resistances of EN14126 (2003).

The specific example of the material of the fabric includes fiber structural bodies (for example, woven fabric, knitted fabric, nonwoven fabric, and paper), a film, a metal foil, and the like. As the material of the fabric, among the exemplified materials, the nonwoven fabric is preferable from the viewpoint of cost, tensile strength, and the like.

The exemplary nonwoven fabric used for the fabric of the protective garment 10 includes wet-laid nonwoven fabric, resin bonded dry-laid nonwoven fabric, thermal bonded dry-laid nonwoven fabric, spunbonded dry-laid nonwoven fabric, meltblown dry-laid nonwoven fabric, needle punched dry-laid nonwoven fabric, water jet punched dry-laid nonwoven paper fabric, flash spun dry-laid nonwoven fabric, and the like. In addition, nonwoven fabric manufactured by a paper making method capable of achieving a uniform mass per unit area and a uniform thickness can be used as a fabric of the protective garment 10. Among the exemplified nonwoven fabrics, the spunbonded dry-laid nonwoven fabric is preferable in view of the cost, the tensile strength, and the like.

The exemplary material of a fiber layer included in the nonwoven fabric includes a polyolefin, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, a polyester, such as polyethylene terephthalate and polylactic acid, a nylon, a rayon, a vinylon, an aramid, a glass, a polycarbonate, a polystyrene, a polyphenylene sulfite, a fluorine-based resin, a mixture of them, and the like.

A resin impregnated or coated nonwoven fabric may be used. The nonwoven fabric to which such a treatment has been performed is improved in viral barrier property.

The exemplary film is a film that provides the viral barrier property and water vapor permeability at the same time. For example, the film is a porous film provided with multiple fine through holes that penetrate both surfaces of the film and have gas permeability. The exemplary resin that constitutes the porous film includes a polyolefin resin, a polycarbonate, a polyamide, a polyimide, a polyamide imide, an aromatic polyamide, a fluorine-based resin, and the like. Among the exemplified resins, the polyolefin resin is preferable from the viewpoint of heat resistance, formability, production cost reduction, chemical resistance, oxidation-reduction resistance, and the like.

A monomer component contained in the polyolefin resin includes a compound having a carbon-carbon double bond, for example, ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, 1-pentene, 3-methyl-pentene-1, 3-methyl-1-butene, 1-hexene, 4-methyl-1-pentene, 5-ethyl-1-hexene, 1-heptene, 1-octene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, 1 -hexadecene, 1 -heptadecene, 1-octadecene, 1-eicosene, vinylcyclohexene, styrene, allylbenzene, cyclopentene, norbornene, and 5-methyl-2-norbornene.

A material of the polyolefin resin includes a homopolymer of the monomer component, a copolymer containing at least two or more of the monomer component selected from the group including the above-described monomer components, a composition in which the homopolymer and the copolymer are blended, and the like, while it is not limited to them. In addition to the above-described monomer components, copolymerized or graft-polymerized polyvinyl alcohol, maleic anhydride, and the like also can be used as the material of the polyolefin resin. The material of the polyolefin resin is not limited to those exemplified.

As a substrate for the fabric, a polyethylene that uses ethylene as a monomer component and/or a polypropylene that uses propylene as a monomer component is preferable. Especially, from the viewpoint of heat resistance, gas permeability, porosity, and the like, the polypropylene that uses propylene as a monomer component is preferable, and is preferably a main component.

In this embodiment, the “main component” means that a proportion of a specific component in all the components is greater than or equal to 50 mass %, more preferably greater than or equal to 80 mass %, even more preferably greater than or equal to 90 mass %, and most preferably greater than or equal to 95 mass %.

A method for forming the through holes in the porous film may be any of a wet method and a dry method.

The exemplary metal foil includes an aluminum foil, a copper foil, a stainless steel foil, and the like. Among them, the aluminum foil is preferable from the viewpoint of cost.

The fabric used for the protective garment 10 may be a laminate in which a fiber structural body and a film or a metal foil are laminated. Accordingly, a puncture strength, a tensile strength, a tensile elongation, and a water pressure resistance required of the protective garment 10 can be provided.

The laminate can have, for example, a laminated structure (three-layer structure) in which a fiber structural body, a film or a metal foil, and a fiber structural body are laminated in this order. In this case, a surface (outer layer) and an inner surface (surface in the wearer side) of the protective garment 10 are fiber structural bodies. While the film or the metal foil can be protected by the surface of the protective garment 10 as the fiber structural body, the inner surface as the fiber structural body can provide a comfortable touch to the wearer. The laminated structure of the laminate may be a two-layer structure of the fiber structural body and the film or the metal foil, or may be a laminated structure of four or more layers.

The tensile elongation of the fabric is preferably less than or equal to 110%, more preferably less than or equal to 50%, and further preferably less than or equal to 30%. The tensile elongation of the fabric of 110% or less can prevent texture opening and the like of the fabric during a work when the protective garment is worn and also in doffing it, thus ensuring the suppressed entry of the viruses and the bacteria inside the protective garment. The tensile elongation of the fabric can be measured based on, for example, a strip method specified in JIS L1096 (2010) Appendix J. A Young's modulus of the fabric is preferably greater than or equal to 1 N/mm², more preferably greater than or equal to 10 N/mm², and further preferably greater than or equal to 15 N/mm². The Young's modulus of the fabric can be measured based on the strip method specified in JIS L1096 (2010) Appendix J. The Young's modulus of the fabric of 1 N/mm² or more can prevent the texture opening and the like of the fabric during a work when the protective garment is worn and also in doffing it, thus ensuring suppressed entry of the viruses and the bacteria inside the protective garment.

Configuration of Protective Garment

Next, the configuration of the protective garment 10 will be described in detail. As illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, the protective garment 10 includes an upper part 12 of the garment and a lower part 14 of the garment connected to the upper part 12 of the garment. The protective garment 10 can have sizes, for example, corresponding to sizes (S, M, and L sizes, and the like) specified in the garment industry. The protective garment 10 may be made to order for each wearer.

The upper part 12 of the garment includes a body portion (trunk portion) 16, a pair of sleeve portions 18 a, 18 b, and a hood portion 20. The body portion 16 is a portion that covers the trunk of the wearer. The body portion 16 includes a front body portion 16 a that covers mainly a front side (chest side) of the wearer and a back body portion 16 b that covers mainly a back surface (back) side of the wearer. The sleeve portion 18 a is a portion that covers the left arm (upper arm and lower arm) of the wearer, and the sleeve portion 18 b is a portion that covers the right arm (upper arm and lower arm) of the wearer. The hood portion 20 is a portion that covers the head and the neck of the wearer. In a front surface (face side of the wearer) of the hood portion 20, an approximately circular hood opening 20 a to ensure the visibility is formed. To the hood opening 20 a and cuffs of the sleeves of the upper part 12 of the garment, a stretchable member, such as a rubber, may be attached to improve the protectiveness.

The lower part 14 of the garment is trousers that includes a pair of leg portions 22 a, 22 b that cover the left leg and the right leg of the wearer. To edges of the leg portions of the lower part 14 of the garment, a stretchable member, such as a rubber, may be attached to improve the protectiveness.

In FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, for convenience of explanation, a boundary between the upper part 12 of the garment and the lower part 14 of the garment and boundaries between the body portion 16 and the sleeve portions 18 a, 18 b of the protective garment 10 are schematically illustrated by one dot chain lines. The boundaries illustrated by the one dot chain lines do not necessarily match joint lines of a plurality of parts (fabrics) to form the protective garment 10. Note that the protective garment 10 includes a stretchable portion (gather portion) also in the back body portion 16 b in the waist circumference.

For donning and doffing of the protective garment 10, an open/close portion 24 (see FIG. 2) is formed in at least the front body portion 16 a. The open/close portion 24 is a portion, for example, openable/closable by a locking tool. The specific example of the open/close portion 24 includes a hook-and-loop fastener, a zip fastener, and a snap-button. For the improvement of protectiveness and ease of doffing, the hook-and-loop fastener or the zip fastener is preferable. The open/close portion 24 can be formed, for example, from a lower edge portion of the hood opening 20 a toward the lower part 14 of the garment. The open/close portion 24 may extend to the lower part 14 of the garment exceeding the boundary between the upper part 12 of the garment and the lower part 14 of the garment. Accordingly, doffing the garment is facilitated. In this embodiment, the open/close portion 24 is formed only in the front surface of the protective garment 10, and not formed in the back surface (back side).

The protective garment 10 may include a cover 26 that covers the open/close portion 24 for increasing the protectiveness as illustrated in FIG. 1. The exemplary cover 26 is a fly front. The cover 26 includes a first edge portion (one edge portion in a right-left direction) joined to any portion of right and left across the open/close portion 24 in the front body portion 16 a (in the embodiment of FIG. 1, left side viewed from the wearer) by, for example, a seam tape 28. The cover 26 includes a second edge portion (edge portion on the opposite side of the first edge portion) configured to be attachable to and detachable from a portion opposing the second edge portion in the surface of the protective garment 10. For example, to the inner surface of the second edge portion, a double-sided tape is disposed. Two tabs 30 may be attached to the second edge portion of the cover 26. One tab of the two tabs 30 is attached to, for example, an upper end portion (end portion in the hood portion 20 side) of the cover 26, and the other the tab 30 can be attached around the chest of the front body portion 16 a. The tab 30 also may be configured to be attachable to and detachable from the portion opposing the second edge portion in the surface of the protective garment 10. For example, to the inner surface of the tab 30, a double-sided tape is disposed.

The upper part 12 of the garment includes a gather portion (stretchable portion) 32 having stretchability in the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b. The gather portion 32 is a portion to improve the ease of doffing (ease of doffing the garment) when doffing the protective garment 10.

In one embodiment, the gather portion 32 can be formed by joining a stretchable member 34, such as a rubber, to the boundary as illustrated in FIG. 4. The stretchable member 34 only needs to be stretchably joined to the boundary. For example, the stretchable member 34 may be attached to the boundary by a double-sided tape or may be sewn to the boundary so as to be stretchable. In the embodiment in which the stretchable member 34 is used to form the gather portion 32, usually, a length of the boundary (length in a circumferential direction of the neck) before forming the gather portion 32 is longer than a length of the stretchable member 34. While FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment in which the stretchable member 34 is joined to the inner side of the protective garment 10, the stretchable member 34 may be joined to the outer side of the protective garment 10.

The boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b corresponds to, for example, the narrowest portion (in other words, most narrowed portion) from the body portion 16 to the hood portion 20. For example, the boundary can be a portion corresponding to a portion in the back side in the circumference of the neck base (boundary between the body and the neck) of the wearer in the upper part 12 of the garment.

In a state where the front body portion 16 a and the back body portion 16 b are stacked and a state where the gather portion 32 is not stretched, when a distance between a left side shoulder portion 36 a and a shoulder portion 36 b in the upper part 12 of the garment of the protective garment 10 is defined as a distance between the shoulder portions 36 a, 36 b, the gather portion 32 may be configured to be stretched to have the distance between the shoulder portions 36 a, 36 b or more. Since the wearer stretches the gather portion 32 when doffing the protective garment 10 and the gather portion 32 is stretched and expanded to the shoulder width or more of the wearer, doffing the garment is more facilitated. The shoulder portions 36 a, 36 b are upper most portions of the boundaries between the body portion 16 and the sleeve portions 18 a, 18 b. The shoulder portions 36 a, 36 b can be portions corresponding to distal ends of left and right shoulder lines. The shoulder portions 36 a, 36 b also can be portions corresponding to shoulder points (specifically, acromial points) of the wearer in the upper part 12 of the garment.

When the elongation of the gather portion 32 is defined by Formula (I), the elongation of the gather portion 32 can be greater than or equal to 120%. With the gather portion 32 having such an elongation, the portion originally having the small width in the circumference of the neck can be stretched to close to the shoulder width of the wearer (or upper part 12 of the garment). The elongation of the gather portion 32 is preferably greater than or equal to 130%, and more preferably greater than or equal to 160%. This is because the gather portion 32 can be stretched to closer to the shoulder width (or the shoulder width or more), and the elongation of the gather portion (%)=(the second length/the first length)×100 . . . (I)

In Formula (I), the first length (unit: cm) is a length of the gather portion 32 before a tension to stretch the gather portion 32 is applied to the gather portion 32, and the second length (unit: cm) is the maximum length of the gather portion 32 when a predetermined tension is applied to the gather portion 32 to stretch the gather portion 32. The exemplary predetermined tension is a tension applied with a load of 15 N at a tensile speed of 100 mm/min.

While the upper limit value of the elongation of the gather portion 32 is not specifically limited, it is preferably less than or equal to 500%, more preferably less than or equal to 300%, and further preferably less than or equal to 200%. Since the length of the gather portion 32 stretched by both hands of the wearer can be maintained to a constant length by using such an upper limit value, the upper part 12 of the garment of the protective garment 10 can be easily doffed by moving both hands of the wearer downward from the state of FIG. 7.

In the embodiment in which the gather portion 32 is formed using the stretchable member 34, usually, the length of the boundary (length in the circumferential direction of the neck) before forming the gather portion 32 is longer than the length of the stretchable member 34 in a state of not being stretched. In this case, it is only necessary to join the stretchable member 34 to the boundary after contracting the boundary longer than the length of the stretchable member 34 in a gathered shape (or while forming creases in a wave shape along boundary) so as to have the substantially same length as the stretchable member 34. Alternatively, the gather portion 32 may be formed by joining the stretchable member 34 to the position in the boundary before joining the stretchable member 34 while applying the tension to the stretchable member 34 to stretch it, and subsequently releasing the tension after the joining. In the protective garment 10, usually, from the viewpoint of preventing the texture opening and the like, a fabric hard to be stretched is used in some cases. In the embodiment in which the gather portion 32 is formed as described above, and when the fabric hard to be stretched is used, the length when the gather portion 32 is maximally stretched substantially matches the length of the boundary before joining the stretchable member 34. Accordingly, from the viewpoint of improving the ease of doffing, the length of the boundary before the joining the stretchable member 34 is preferably the length between the shoulder portion 36 a and the shoulder portion 36 b of the protective garment 10 or more.

Here, in a state where a wearer having the shoulder width of 406 mm wears the protective garment 10, the gather portion 32 may be configured to be stretched to have the shoulder width or more of the wearer. Also in this case, since the wearer can stretch the gather portion 32 to stretch and expand the gather portion 32 to the shoulder width or more of the wearer when doffing the garment, doffing the garment is more facilitated. Here, the shoulder width of 406 mm is an average value of the shoulder width measured in the standing position posture for males of their 30s. Note that this shoulder width is a direct distance between right and left acromial points.

In this embodiment, the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the front body portion 16 a preferably has an elongation per unit length smaller than that of the gather portion (stretchable portion) 32 when a predetermined tension (for example, a tension applied at the tensile speed of 100 mm/min and the load of 15 N) is applied. Specifically, in this embodiment, since the stretchable member is not joined to the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the front body portion 16 a, the stretchability other than the stretchability by the fabrics of the hood portion 20 and the front body portion 16 a is not provided. Therefore, when doffing the protective garment 10, after opening the open/close portion 24, it is easy to grip the proximity of the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the front body portion 16 a positioned at the base of the neck of the wearer and bring it to the back side of the wearer (see FIG. 5 to FIG. 7).

In the protective garment 10, a predetermined region (hatched region in FIG. 3) may be formed of one continuous fabric. The predetermined region includes at least a part of the hood portion 20 and at least a part of the back body portion 16 b, which are disposed across the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b, and the boundary. Since the predetermined region that includes at least a part of the hood portion 20 and at least a part of the back body portion 16 b, which are disposed across the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b, and the boundary is formed of the one continuous fabric, the proximity of the boundary between the back body portion 16 b and the hood portion 20 becomes flexible, thus improving wearing comfort of the protective garment 10. Note that when the predetermined region is formed by joining two or more separate bodies, the predetermined region includes a joint portion (for example, sewn portion), and further, the joint portion is present at the boundary between the back body portion and the hood portion, the flexibility at the proximity of the boundary is inferior, and the wearing comfort of the protective garment tends to be inferior. The hatching in FIG. 3 is a hatching for indicating the predetermined region. The predetermined region is a region, for example, from the back surface portion of the hood portion 20 to the center portion of the back body portion 16 b. In this case, there is no joint line in the boundary (portion in which the gather portion 32 is formed) between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b. Accordingly, since the protectiveness is easily ensured and the gather portion 32 becomes flexible, thus avoiding decrease in comfort and workability.

The protective garment 10 can be manufactured, for example, as follows. First, parts corresponding to a plurality of regions in the protective garment 10 are formed using the exemplified fabric. Subsequently, they are joined in the form of the protective garment 10. In joining the plurality of parts in the form of the protective garment 10, the open/close portion 24 is formed.

After joining the plurality of parts in the form of the protective garment 10, the gather portion 32 is formed. The gather portion 32 is formed by joining the stretchable member 34 to the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b. As described above, usually, the length (length in the extending direction of the boundary) of the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b before forming the gather portion 32 is longer than the length of the stretchable member 34. Accordingly, in forming the gather portion 32, the gathered shape is made by joining the stretchable member 34 to the boundary after contracting the boundary before joining the stretchable member 34 to the length of the stretchable member 34 in the gathered shape, or joining the stretchable member 34 to the position of the boundary before joining the stretchable member 34 in the state where the tension is applied to stretch the stretchable member 34, and subsequently releasing the tension after the joining.

In the embodiment in which the protective garment 10 includes the cover 26, for example, it is only necessary to attach the cover 26 to the front body portion 16 a after joining the plurality of parts in the form of the protective garment 10. When the tabs 30 are attached to the cover 26, the cover 26 to which the tabs 30 have been attached may be attached to the front body portion 16 a, or the tabs 30 may be attached to the cover 26 after the cover 26 is attached to the front body portion 16 a.

From the viewpoint of the protectiveness, the joint portions between the parts are preferably covered with the seam tape 28 as illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3. The parts need not to correspond to the portions, such as the upper part 12 of the garment, the lower part 14 of the garment, and the body portion 16 and the sleeve portions 18 a, 18 b of the upper part 12 of the garment, in one to one.

Since the protective garment 10 includes the open/close portion 24 in the front surface, the wearer easily opens and closes the open/close portion 24 by himself/herself. Therefore, donning and doffing the protective garment 10 is easy. Since the protective garment 10 includes the gather portion 32, the ease of doffing is further improved. This respect will be described using FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 schematically illustrating a method for doffing the protective garment 10. In wearing the protective garment 10, gloves are generally worn in addition to the protective garment 10. Usually, the harmful substances adhere more on the outer surfaces of the gloves than the outer surface of the protective garment 10. Accordingly, in doffing the protective garment 10 and the gloves, the gloves are generally doffed at first, and in this case, the protective garment 10 is doffed after doffing the gloves. Therefore, to prevent the harmful substances and the like adhered to the outer surface of the protective garment 10 from adhering to the body of the wearer (especially, the hand of the wearer) in doffing the protective garment 10, the protective garment 10 is doffed while holding the inner side of the protective garment 10, thereby allowing reduction of the risk of the secondary contamination. FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 illustrate an exemplary method for doffing the protective garment 10 after doffing the gloves. In addition, to further reduce the risk of the secondary contamination, double gloves (inner gloves and outer gloves) are worn during the work, and in doffing the protective garment 10 and the gloves, the outer gloves are doffed at first, and subsequently, the protective garment 10 is doffed while the inner gloves are kept to be worn. Also in this case, the risk of the secondary contamination can be reduced by doffing the protective garment 10 while holding the inside of the protective garment 10.

In doffing the protective garment 10, first, the wearer opens the open/close portion 24, and subsequently, doffs the hood portion 20 (see FIG. 5). Next, to prevent the harmful substances and the like adhered to the outer surface of the protective garment 10 from adhering to the body (especially, the hand of the wearer or the inner gloves) in doffing the garment, the shoulder are removed from an opening portion of the protective garment 10 formed by opening the open/close portion 24 while holding the inner side of the protective garment 10 and rolling the outer surface of the protective garment 10 inward (see FIG. 6 to FIG. 8). Then, after removing the arms from the protective garment 10 to doff the upper part 12 of the garment, the legs are removed from the lower part 14 of the garment, thus doffing the protective garment 10.

In removing the shoulders from the protective garment 10, the neck base portion (the boundary between the hood portion 20 and the back body portion 16 b) of the protective garment 10 can be stretched by pulling the gather portion 32 as illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. Accordingly, it is easy for the wearer to remove the shoulders from the protective garment 10. Therefore, in doffing the protective garment 10, the shoulders can be easily removed even by the wearer alone without the need for a helper. That is, since the protective garment 10 includes the gather portion 32, the ease of doffing is improved.

When the length of the gather portion 32 while the gather portion 32 is maximally stretched is the distance between the shoulder portion 36 a and the shoulder portion 36 b of the upper part 12 of the garment or more, the neck base portion of the upper part 12 of the garment can be expanded to the shoulder width or more of the wearer in removing the shoulders from the protective garment 10 (see FIG. 6 and FIG. 7). Consequently, the shoulders are more easily removed, thus improving the ease of doffing. Similarly, when the elongation of the gather portion 32 defined by Formula (I) is greater than or equal to 120%, the neck base portion of the upper part 12 of the garment is more easily made close to the shoulder width of the wearer in removing the shoulders from the protective garment 10. Consequently, the shoulders are easily removed, thus improving the ease of doffing.

When the fabric having the viral barrier property of class 4 or higher is used, the fabric is hard to be stretched because of increasing the protectiveness. For example, the elongation of the fabric can be less than or equal to 50%, or further, less than or equal to 30%. The Young's modulus of the fabric can be greater than or equal to 10 N/mm², or further, greater than or equal to 15 N/mm². Provisionally, when a protective garment without the gather portion 32 is manufactured with such a fabric, the shoulders are hard to be removed because the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion is not expanded in doffing the protective garment. In contrast, in the protective garment 10 that includes the gather portion 32, since the gather portion 32 can be stretched in doffing the protective garment 10, the protective garment 10 is easily doffed. Accordingly, when the fabric hard to be stretched is used, the protective garment 10 is more effective.

As described above, in the embodiment, the stretchable member 34, such as a rubber, is joined to the boundary, thereby forming the gather portion 32. In this case, the length of the boundary before attaching the stretchable member 34 is longer than the length of the stretchable member 34. For example, it is also considered that the improvement of the ease of doffing is ensured by setting the length of the boundary before attaching the stretchable member 34 to, for example, the shoulder width or more of the wearer. However, since the proximity of the boundary of the protective garment becomes loose, the comfort and the workability of the wearer decrease. Meanwhile, since the looseness can be suppressed by attaching the stretchable member 34 to the boundary to form the gather portion 32, the decrease in comfort and workability can be avoided while improving the ease of doffing.

EXAMPLES

The following describes examples and comparative examples. First, various measurement methods and doffing tests used in the examples and the comparative examples will be described.

Measurement Method (1) Tensile Elongation of Fabric

The measurement was performed based on the strip method specified in JIS L1096 (2010) Appendix J, and the unit was indicated by %.

(2) Young's Modulus of Fabric

The measurement was performed based on the strip method specified in JIS L1096 (2010) Appendix J, and the unit was indicated by N/mm².

(3) Elongation of Stretchable Portion

The elongation of the stretchable portion in the protective garment in which the rubber was joined to the fabric to form the stretchable portion was obtained as follows.

Test pieces having widths of 50 mm were obtained from the protective garment assuming that the length as a length of the rubber+a length of surplus fabric (sum of the lengths of both sides, the length of 50 mm, of the rubber: 100 mm) having the rubber in the center. As a length (unit: cm) (hereinafter referred to as a “first length”) of the stretchable portion in a state where the test piece was made (in a state before applying the tension for pulling), the length when the test piece was allowed to stand was measured by a ruler. Subsequently, in a tensile tester, the surplus fabric parts of the test piece were sandwiched by upper and lower chucks by 50 mm for each, and elongated at the tensile speed of 100 mm/min to the load of 15 N, thus obtaining the elongation of the stretchable portion from Formula (II) below having the length at the time as a second length (unit: cm) of the stretchable portion.

Stretchable portion elongation (%)=(the second length/the first length)×100  (II)

(4) Viral Barrier Property

A successful test pressures by the method D defined by JIS T8061 (2010) was classified based on bacteriophage permeability resistances of JIS T8122 (2007). This class is equivalent to a class classified by a successful test pressure by the method D of Table 1 defined by ISO 16604 (2004) based on Table 1 of EN14126 (2003).

(5) Doffing Test

After monitoring persons wore the protective garment (L size), the monitoring persons evaluated the ease of doffing (easiness in doffing the shoulders) in doffing the garment. The above-described doffing test was performed for the same protective garment by three monitoring persons, an evaluation result most frequent among the evaluations by the three monitoring persons was employed as a final evaluation result. The shoulder widths of the three monitoring persons participated in the doffing test were approximately 38 cm for each of the three persons.

Doffing Method

The monitoring persons each doffed the protective garment in the order of S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5 below.

S1: Open the open/close portion. S2: Doff the hood portion. S3: Remove the shoulders from the opening portion of the protective garment formed by opening the open/close portion while holding the inner side of the proximity of the upper end of the open/close portion of the protective garment and rolling the outer surface of the protective garment inward. S4: Remove the arms to doff the upper part of the garment. S5: Doff the lower part of the garment.

Evaluation Criteria

The monitoring persons each evaluated the doffing capability along the following criteria.

A: Excellent in doffing capability B: Good in doffing capability C: Poor in doffing capability

Example 1

A polypropylene spunbonded nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 20 g/m², thickness 0.2 mm) and a polypropylene meltblown nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 15 g/m², thickness 0.15 mm) were used to prepare a long fabric in which the spunbonded nonwoven fabric, the meltblown nonwoven fabric, and the spunbonded nonwoven fabric were laminated in this order and the layers were mutually bonded. For mutually bonding the layers, a hot melt adhesive containing PE as a main component was prepared to be 1.5 g/m² between respective layers, and subsequently, applied between respective layers in a sprayed method.

The conditions of the prepared fabric were as follows.

Tensile elongation MD (tensile elongation in longitudinal direction): 110%

Tensile elongation TD (tensile elongation in direction perpendicular to longitudinal direction): 105%

Young's modulus MD (Young's modulus in longitudinal direction): 5 N/mm²

Young's modulus TD (Young's modulus in direction perpendicular to longitudinal direction): 2 N/mm²

Viral barrier property: class 1

Then, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out from the prepared fabric. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave. At this time, an elastic braid (super strong flat rubber of model number SAN-228 white manufactured by SUNHIT Co., LTD., 6 call) of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to the boundary (length of boundary: 38 cm) between the hood portion and the back body portion to form the stretchable portion, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). Since the length of the elastic braid was 23 cm, in forming the stretchable portion, the elastic braid was attached to the boundary having the length of 38 cm while applying a tension to the elastic braid to stretch the elastic braid to the length of 38 cm, and then, the tension was released, thus forming the gather.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the stretchable portion in a state where the monitoring persons each stretched the stretchable portion (boundary) to remove the shoulders from the protective garment, the stretchable portions were able to be stretched to 38 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation A, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Example 1 in the doffing test was the evaluation A.

After the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Example 1 was 165%.

Example 2

A nonwoven fabric (hereinafter referred to as a “resin-coated spunbonded nonwoven fabric”) in which a polypropylene spunbonded nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 20 g/m², thickness 0.2 mm) was coated (thickness 50 μm) with a polyethylene resin, a polypropylene meltblown nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 15 g/m², thickness 0.15 mm), and a polypropylene spunbonded nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 20 g/m², thickness 0.2 mm) were used to prepare a long fabric in which the resin-coated spunbonded nonwoven fabric, the meltblown nonwoven fabric, and the spunbonded nonwoven fabric were laminated in this order and the layers were mutually bonded. The method for mutually bonding the layers was similar to that in the case of Example 1.

The conditions of the prepared fabric were as follows.

Tensile elongation MD: 30%

Tensile elongation TD: 10%

Young's modulus MD: 40 N/mm²

Young's modulus TD: 25 N/mm²

Viral barrier property: class 6

Then, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out from the prepared fabric. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave. In forming in the protective garment, the fabric was used such that the resin-coated spunbonded nonwoven fabric in the prepared fabric becomes the surface (outer layer) of the protective garment. In forming in the protective garment, the elastic braid of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to the boundary (length of boundary: 38 cm) between the hood portion and the back body portion to form the stretchable portion, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). Since the length of the elastic braid was 23 cm, in forming the stretchable portion, the elastic braid was attached to the boundary having the length of 38 cm while applying a tension to the elastic braid to stretch the elastic braid to the length of 38 cm, and then, the tension was released, thus forming the gather.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the stretchable portion in a state where the monitoring persons each pulled the stretchable portion (boundary) in removing the shoulders from the protective garment, the stretchable portions were able to be stretched to 38 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation A, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Example 2 in the doffing test was the evaluation A.

After the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Example 2 was 165%.

Example 3

A polypropylene/polyethylene sheath-core spunbonded nonwoven fabric (mass per unit area 30 g/m², thickness 0.2 mm) and a water vapor-permeable film (polyethylene microporous film (thickness 12 μm, mean flow pore diameter 33 nm)) were used to prepare a long fabric in which the nonwoven fabric, the water vapor-permeable film, the water vapor-permeable film, and the nonwoven fabric were laminated in this order and the layers were mutually bonded. For mutually bonding the layers, a synthetic rubber based hot melt adhesive containing a styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) as a main component was prepared to be 1.5 g/m² between respective layers, and subsequently, applied between respective layers in a sprayed method.

The conditions of the prepared fabric were as follows.

Tensile elongation MD: 20%

Tensile elongation TD: 15%

Young's modulus MD: 30 N/mm²

Young's modulus TD: 15 N/mm²

Viral barrier property: class 6

Then, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out from the prepared fabric. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave. At this time, the elastic braid of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to the boundary (length: 28 cm) between the hood portion and the back body portion to form the stretchable portion, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). Since the length of the elastic braid was 23 cm, in forming the stretchable portion, the elastic braid was attached to the boundary having the length of 28 cm while applying a tension to the elastic braid to stretch the elastic braid to the length of 28 cm, and then, the tension was released, thus forming the gather.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the stretchable portion in a state where the monitoring persons each pulled the stretchable portion (boundary) in removing the shoulders from the protective garment, the stretchable portions were able to be stretched to 28 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, two persons among the three monitoring persons evaluated it as B, and one person evaluated it as C. Consequently, the final evaluation result of Example 3 in the doffing test was the evaluation B.

After the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Example 3 was 122%.

Example 4

In Example 4, the fabric same as that of Example 3 was used. From the fabric, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave. At this time, the elastic braid of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to the boundary (length: 30 cm) between the hood portion and the back body portion to form the stretchable portion, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). Since the length of the elastic braid was 23 cm, in forming the stretchable portion, the elastic braid was attached to the boundary having the length of 30 cm while applying a tension to the elastic braid to stretch the elastic braid to the length of 30 cm, and then, the tension was released, thus forming the gather.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the stretchable portion in a state where the monitoring persons each pulled the stretchable portion (boundary) in removing the shoulders from the protective garment, the stretchable portions were able to be stretched to 30 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation B, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Example 4 in the doffing test was the evaluation B.

After the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Example 4 was 130%.

Example 5

In Example 5, the fabric same as that of Example 3 was used. From the fabric, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave. At this time, the elastic braid of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to the boundary (length: 38 cm) between the hood portion and the back body portion to form the stretchable portion, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). Since the length of the elastic braid was 23 cm, in forming the stretchable portion, the elastic braid was attached to the boundary having the length of 38 cm while applying a tension to the elastic braid to stretch the elastic braid to the length of 38 cm, and then, the tension was released, thus forming the gather.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the stretchable portion in a state where the monitoring persons each pulled the stretchable portion (boundary) in removing the shoulders from the protective garment, the stretchable portions were able to be stretched to 38 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation A, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Example 5 in the doffing test was the evaluation A.

After the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Example 5 was 165%.

Comparative Example 1

In Comparative Example 1, the fabric same as that of Example 3 was used. From the fabric, the plurality of parts corresponding to the plurality of regions in the protective garment were cut out. Subsequently, for forming in the protective garment, the plurality of parts were joined in a form having continuous fusion portions using an ultrasonic sound wave, thus obtaining the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size). The length of the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion in the protective garment was 23 cm.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the boundary when the monitoring persons each removed the shoulders from the protective garment, the length of the boundary was not increased and 23 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation C, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Comparative Example 1 in the doffing test was the evaluation C.

Comparative Example 2

In Comparative Example 2, the fabric same as that of Example 3 was used. The hooded coverall type protective garment (L size) was obtained similarly to Comparative Example 1 except that the elastic braid of the width of 5 mm and the length of 23 cm was attached to a position at an upper portion by 10 cm (close to back of head) from the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion.

The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the boundary when the monitoring persons each removed the shoulders from the protective garment, the length of the boundary was not increased and 23 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation C, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Comparative Example 2 in the doffing test was the evaluation C.

In Comparative Example 2, after the doffing test, the elongation of the stretchable portion formed by the elastic braid attached to the position at an upper portion by 10 cm (close to back of head) from the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion was obtained by the above-described measurement method. Specifically, the test piece was cut out from the protective garment and the elongation was calculated. As a result, the elongation of the stretchable portion of the protective garment in Comparative Example 2 was 165%.

Comparative Example 3

In Comparative Example 3, the hooded coverall type protective garment (L size) was obtained similarly to Comparative Example 1 except that the fabric same as that in Example 1 was used. The three monitoring persons performed the doffing test using the manufactured protective garment (single-use type). In S2 of the above-described doffing method of the protective garment, in the measurement of the length of the boundary when the monitoring persons each removed the shoulders from the protective garment, the length of the boundary was not substantially increased and 23 cm. The evaluation results by the three monitoring persons were as indicated in FIG. 9. As indicated in FIG. 9, the evaluations by all the three monitoring persons were the evaluation C, and consequently, the final evaluation result of Comparative Example 3 in the doffing test was the evaluation C.

From the results of Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Examples 1 to 3, it is seen that the ease of doffing is improved, that is, doffing the garment is more facilitated, by forming the stretchable portion in the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion. This is considered because the arrangement of the stretchable portion in the boundary allows the monitoring persons to each pull the stretchable portion (boundary) to stretch the stretchable portion in removing the shoulders from the protective garment in S2 of the doffing method of the protective garment.

In Comparative Example 2, the stretchable portion having the elongation of 165% was formed at the position at an upper portion by 10 cm from the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion. However, the boundary could not be stretched in doffing the garment, thus causing difficulty in doffing the garment. Accordingly, from the comparison between Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Example 2, it can be understood that it is important to form the stretchable portion in the boundary between the hood portion and the back body portion.

Further, it can be also understood that the doffing capability is more improved by the elongation (%) of 120% or more of the stretchable portion.

The various embodiments and examples of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the exemplified various embodiments and examples and intended to include all the changes made within a range of the claims and made within a meaning and a range equivalent to the claims.

For example, the protective garment is not limited to the one to block the harmful substances including viruses, bacteria, and the like, and may be a garment that blocks the radioactivity. In this case, it is only necessary to use a fabric that can block the radioactivity as the fabric of the protective garment. The stretchable portion only needs to be configured to be stretchable.

The protective garment of the present invention is appropriately used as a protective garment from radioactive materials, an agricultural protective garment used in spraying chemicals, a sealed garment used in a chemical handling site, an infection control garment protective from viruses and bacteria, a surgical garment, and the like. Especially, the protective garment is appropriately used as the infection control garment, the surgical garment, and the like required to suppress the secondary contamination. The protective garment of the present invention may be protective garment of a single-use type or may be protective garment of a reuse type. As described above, since the protective garment of the present invention is used especially appropriately for the infection control garment and the like required to suppress the secondary contamination, the protective garment of the single-use type is preferable.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

10 Protective garment

12 Upper part of the garment

14 Lower part of the garment

16 Body portion

18 a, 18 b Sleeve portion (pair of sleeve portions)

20 Hood portion

22 a, 22 b Leg portion

24 Open/close portion

32 Gather portion (stretchable portion) 

1. A protective garment comprising: an upper part of the garment that includes a body portion, a pair of sleeve portions, and a hood portion; a lower part of the garment connected to the upper part of the garment; and an open/close portion formed in a front body portion of the body portion for donning and doffing of the protective garment, wherein a stretchable portion is formed in a boundary between a back body portion of the body portion and the hood portion.
 2. The protective garment according to claim 1, wherein fabrics of the upper part of the garment and the lower part of the garment have a viral barrier property of class 4 or higher.
 3. The protective garment according to claim 1, wherein an elongation of the stretchable portion is greater than or equal to 120%, and the elongation is calculated by Formula (1) assuming that a length of the stretchable portion before applying a tension in a direction of stretching the stretchable portion is referred to as a first length, and a maximum length of the stretchable portion in a case where a predetermined tension is applied to the stretchable portion to stretch the stretchable portion is referred to as a second length, and the elongation of the stretchable portion (%)=(the second length/the first length)×100   (1).
 4. The protective garment according to claim 1, wherein the stretchable portion is configured to be stretched to have a distance between shoulder portions or more assuming that a distance between a shoulder portion in a left side and a shoulder portion in a right side of the upper part of the garment is defined as the distance between the shoulder portions in a state where the front body portion and the back body portion are stacked and a state where the stretchable portion is not stretched.
 5. The protective garment according to claim 1, wherein the stretchable portion is configured to be stretched to have a shoulder width or more of a wearer in a state where the wearer having the shoulder width of 406 mm wears the protective garment.
 6. The protective garment according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the hood portion and at least a part of the back body portion, disposed across the boundary, and the boundary are formed of one continuous fabric. 